Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) Shares Fall 2% on Decline of Profits – But They Did Manage to Blow By Analysts’ Expectations

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) stock has taken a slight hit this morning, falling nearly 2% in the pre-market after the company reported their fourth quarter earnings. With the price of crude oil falling substantially, it was expected that we’d see less than spectactular numbers from the world’s largest oil companies like Exxon Mobil and BP (NYSE:BP).

While fourth quarter net income fell to just $2.78 billion, which is approximately $0.67 per share, after seeing numbers come in at a whopping $6.57 billion ($1.56 per share) a year ago, Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) still managed to beat Wall Street’s expectations of $0.63 per share.

The company’s revenue fell an astoundng 31% to just $59.81 billion, but this too beat Wall Street’s expectations of just $51.36 billion. All in all, the numbers look pretty shabby on a year-to-year basis, but when you consider the steep fall we’ve seen in the price of oil, as well as the fact that they blew by analysts’ expectations, some investors might see this a a good report for the oil company.

The stock decreased 0.03% or $0.02 during the last trading session, hitting $76.27. Approximately 189,281 shares traded hands. XOM shares have declined 9.03% since June 26, 2015 and are currently downtrending. It has underperformed the S&P500 by 1.32%.

From a total of 11 analysts covering Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) stock, 5 rate it a “Buy”, 3 a “Sell”, and 3 a “Hold”. This means that 45% of the ratings are positive. The highest target price is $100 while the lowest target price is $52. The mean of all analyst targets is $79.94 which is 4.81% above today’s ($76.27) stock price. Exxon Mobil was the topic of 28 analyst reports since July 22, 2015 according to the firm StockzIntelligence Inc. Tudor Pickering downgraded shares on January 26 to a “Sell” rating. Vetr upgraded shares to a”Buy” rating and a $86.25 target share price in their report from an August 20. Credit Agricole initiated XOM stock in a recent report from December 15 with a “Outperform” rating. Finally, Macquarie Research initiated the stock with a “Underperform” rating in a report they issued on a September 23.

The institutional sentiment increased to 1.11 in Q2 2015. It’s up 0.24, from 0.87 in 2015Q2. The ratio is positive, as 82 funds sold all their Exxon Mobil Corporation shares they owned while 750 reduced their positions. 90 funds bought stakes while 831 increased their total positions. Institutions now own 2.05 billion shares which is 2.08% more than the previous share count of 2.01 billion in 2015Q2.

Salient Trust Co Lta holds 61.48% of its total portfolio in Exxon Mobil Corporation, equating to 4.89 million shares. Peddock Capital Advisors Llc owns 516,951 shares representing 35.03% of their total US portfolio. Moreover, Pinnacle Summer Investments Inc. has 22.98% of their total portfolio invested in the company, equating to 2.55 million shares. The Florida-based Huff W R Asset Management Co Llc De has a total of 19.64% of their portfolio invested in the stock. Adams Natural Resources Fund Inc., a Maryland-based fund reported 1.36 million shares owned.

Exxon Mobil Corporation is an energy company. The company has a market cap of $317.59 billion. The Firm is engaged in the exploration and production of natural gas and crude oil. It has 16.11 P/E ratio. The Firm is involved in the manufacturing of petroleum products, and transportation and sale of crude oil, natural gas and petroleum products.